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June 08, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 29, 2013
South Korea's house of cards
Except for Samsung Electronics, South Korea's manufacturing industry appears to be on the verge of a big stall. How long Samsung will be able to maintain its market dominance is an open question.
Reader Mail
Dec 28, 2013
Most don't care about workouts
The Dec. 22 editorial "Students neglect physical exercise" is eminently annoying for the tired old list of wrong and wrongheaded ideas it repeats.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 25, 2013
Race-based ID checks in front of families send wrong message
I cannot accept the way Japanese police treat foreigners such as myself in public places — especially how they judge people by color and appearance. I have had several unpleasant experiences that suggest this is the case.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2013
Something worth passing down
Japan Times staff writer Reiji Yoshida has hit the nail right on the head in the Dec. 16 article, "Deceptive rice price reforms viewed as too late for industry," and in his co-authored article of the same date, "No country for small-time rice farmers."
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2013
Humanities hone analytic skills
In his Dec. 16 article, "Abe shows totalitarian bent," Takamitsu Sawa makes a startling disclosure: "I cannot help thinking that the current Japan is drifting away from the modern Western European ideals based on liberalism, democracy and individualism."
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2013
Popular heroes, difficult ideals
I understand what Grant Piper is saying in his Dec. 22 letter, "Exactly who do you think he was?" I think it is a universal phenomenon. Many people don't even know the figureheads of the countries where they were born and brought up.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2013
Loopy logic of Futenma prevails
Regarding the Dec. 4 article "U.S. backs Japan against ADIZ: Biden": At their meeting, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that the 2006 road map agreement for relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma further north on Okinawa Island to Henoko was being implemented...
Reader Mail
Dec 21, 2013
Hard-liners play to home crowd
Regarding the Dec. 15 feature article “Kim purge puts world on alert”: I vividly remember the tense atmosphere that often existed in Japan amid the Cold War, when we would be intimidated by news of Russian fighters intruding on our territory. We’d worry about the Kremlin’s every movement and...
Reader Mail
Dec 21, 2013
Mandela halted vengeful politics
Jennifer Kim’s Dec. 15 letter, “Can’t see Mandela as a ‘peace icon,’” reflects the typical hypocrisy that was shown by Western leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan at the time toward white South Africa.
Reader Mail
Dec 21, 2013
Exactly who do you think he was?
Nelson Mandela was seen and revered not only as a political hero but practically as a living saint. The hagiography surrounding him somewhat disguises his many family tragedies, his policy failures and his political cunning.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 19, 2013
Rift growing between allies
The gut feeling of American military leaderes is that if only to prevent war between the U.S. and China, they don't want Japan's Self-Defense Forces to possess offensive-strike capabilities.
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
Japanese sleepwalk in the lights
In his Dec. 17 article, "Abe shows totalitarian bent," Takamitsu Sawa does an excellent job of summing up my fears of the direction in which Japan is heading.
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
U.S. needs to accept China's rise
Regarding Victor D. Cha's Dec. 11 article, "An opportunity for America in China's overreach": To give this piece the proper context, consider that Cha was the Bush/Cheney administration's initial appointment to the directorate of Asian affairs for the U.S. National Security Council. Thus it is not surprising...
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
Refusal to recognize a 'dispute'
Regarding Noriko Fujita's Dec. 12 letter, 'Arrogant' China as a role model," I'd like to make a few points:
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
Students must show their mettle
What a great letter by Grant Piper — "A better use of students' time" — on Dec. 12. I am aware of the pressure put on Japanese students throughout their school years and of the challenge they face of just getting into a university.
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
Mindset that bedevils English
Regarding the Dec. 14 front-page article "English education set to get serious": What is all this nonsense? Haven't we heard this all before? Japan's education ministry spends far more money per pupil on English lessons than any other nation in Asia, yet Japanese students continue to lag far behind their...
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
Space to join research networks
Jeremy Rappleye's Dec. 13 article, "Higher-education stimulus would be sure bet for Japan," is right to point out that "internationalization" cannot just mean importing foreign faces onto Japanese campuses. It must involve expanding the scope for all Japan-based faculty and students to operate internationally....
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013
Don't drop any nursing services
Regarding the Dec. 15 editorial "Nursing services under the knife": More attention should be paid to Japan's nursing care system.
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 15, 2013
Could felling trees help cool the planet?
It is an article of faith that preserving trees is critical to cooling our warming planet.
Reader Mail
Dec 14, 2013
Scheme to send teachers abroad skips problem
I'm afraid I cannot match the level of enthusiasm expressed in the Dec. 8 editorial "English teachers to study abroad" for the Tokyo Board of Education's brain wave to send English teachers abroad for study in their third year of teaching.
Foreign tourists with unpaid medical bills in Japan to be denied entry
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during ministerial meeting meeting on foreign residents in Japan on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office.
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.
Japan won’t wait for G7 summit for possible U.S. trade deal
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the U.S. speaks to reporters at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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